Photos: Massive venue for Super Bowl LIII concert is rising

Some 200 laborers are piecing together a massive concert venue at Atlantic Station that’s designed with a single purpose: to host a few hours of pre-Super Bowl music before being torn down.

Fronted by two multi-story cubes, the half-cylinder towers 100 feet, peering down on the Connector from an undeveloped lot where Cirque du Soleil periodically erects tents.

The venue is the centerpiece of this year’s DIRECTV Super Saturday Night, a concert to be headlined by rock stalwarts Foo Fighters the night before Super Bowl LIII. Run the Jewels, a rap duo featuring Atlanta’s own Killer Mike, is billed as the “special guest performer.”

The concert is expected to begin at 10 p.m. with a celebrity-studded audience, per an announcement today. Deconstruction will start the next day.

The venue was conceptualized by executive producer Jack Murphy, who’s created large-scale Super Bowl parties for nearly three decades.

Atlanta’s temporary concert venue will span 72,000 square feet with three interior tiers, requiring almost 29,000 feet of steel beams and 65,000 feet of cable. Here’s a look at how it’s coming together this week:

Rendering: Joanna-Maria Helinurm

Rendering: Joanna-Maria Helinurm

Meanwhile, in downtown Atlanta, the cylindrical icon that is Westin Peachtree Plaza is donning a massive Lombardi Trophy (below).

Atlanta magazine reports that videos will be projected onto the 300-foot-tall banner leading up to the February 3 game, aimed at Super Bowl LIVE revelers around Centennial Olympic Park.

More huge banners are being installed on the 101 Marietta Street tower and on Mercedes-Benz Stadium itself, among other downtown buildings.